Small Business Survey Methods

How often do you get a survey at the bottom of your receipt from whatever store or restaurant you recently made a purchase from? These days, it’s probably pretty often as most establishments want to know how they’re doing overall and give patrons an opportunity to commend or share issues they had with specific employees. As a small business owner, surveys can be a great way to see what your customers are looking for and how they think you’re doing. There are dozens of survey methods available, but a quick Google search turned up eight options that are great for small businesses.

Google Consumer Surveys — This site runs through Google and allows users to choose their target audience, type the questions, and wait for the results to roll in, which takes hours vs. days for other survey sites. GCS is great for brand tracking, marketing design, and campaign measurement. Costs vary depending what you’re looking to do so research this one before diving in.

Validateit — This site works through Google Consumer Surveys but provides pre-designed questionnaires and finds unbiased respondents through GCS. The system is turnkey and intuitive, allowing users to get their surveys in front of audience faster than on other sites for a fraction of the cost. Validateit offers a variety of products at different cost tiers so make sure to do your research before getting started.

Sizeup — Their tagline is business intelligence for all. You start by entering your city and your industry and whether you have an existing business or want to start a business. From there, you can see how your business is performing, where your customers are, and where you should advertise to get the best return on your investment. It looks like Sizeup is free to get started, too.

SurveyMonkey — This is the survey site you’re probably most familiar with, and they offer a free version and a pro paid version. This is strictly an online interface and is very user friendly. You can do everything from simple one or two question polls to more in-depth surveys. You can make questions optional or required, depending on your survey needs. There are a variety of plans, so even if you’re just starting out and need to go beyond the basic plan you can do it affordably.

Ask Your Target Market — This site allows you to create surveys based on ten demographic traits, including age, gender, employment status, children, and more. With AYTM, you can email surveys, post directly to social media, or embed the survey in your blog. Pricing and plans vary so figure out which one is best for you before you get started.

Gutcheck — Gutcheck focuses on market research concepts such as concept screening and refinement and shopper insights. After looking at your research objectives, they are able to recommend the best methodology for you to get results fast. The site offers use cases so you can see how major companies like Olive Garden use the methodology to get customer feedback. You can even schedule a demo to see if Gutcheck is right for you.

uSamp — uSamp offers mobile and automated sample solutions. Mobile offers in-the-moment insights, while automated accelerates your primary starting points in a fraction of the time that other sites can. uSamp has offices around the world and their team is easily accessible via phone or web.

Survata — Survata offers two options: basic surveys and advanced surveys. The capabilities of each option vary slightly and there is a cost involved for both. The site uses a simple three step process for survey creation: create the survey, they get it out to the target audience, and you get results. You can track age, gender, operating system, web browser, and more when viewing the results. Like Gutcheck, Survata has use cases so you can view real life examples of surveys at work before creating your own.

Do you have any suggestions for survey methods? Perhaps we missed something in our research?

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BrightZone provides exceptional marketing and social media value to small business owners, both in the product and service business sectors. We start by reviewing business basics, however, our differentiation is linking your business strategy with Internet Marketing, including state of the art social media.
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